Today’s been a busy day. First off, I went to bed around 3:30am after playing City of Heroes. Then Leo wanted me to get up at 7:30am. But I didn’t get up until an hour later. Then I was off to the Newton Alumni Executive Committee meeting where we finalized much of the upcoming banquet (2 weeks from today!) We worked on the programs (folding, stapling, the like) until noon. Back home for quicky lunch and then it was time for a Grand Day Out.

The folks and I headed for Piqua around noon-thirty – the goal: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I paid for everyone’s ticket ($3.75 each – eep! The price keeps going up!) and we sat down to watch several trailers about children’s movies on sports. Soccer, basketball – you name it, there’s a kids movie coming out with it. The short trailer for Chicken Little is hysterical – if you know Hitchhiker’s Guide, that is. 🙂

I enjoyed the movie. Laughed often (dad and I were chuckling about the sighing doors long after the rest of the audience stopped) and loved the casting. Dad laughed a lot too, and I even heard mom chuckle from time to time. Dad and I enjoyed the movie, as did mom, who thought the movie was “weird.” Well, yeah, it is. 🙂 Stephen Fry as the Book and Alan Rickman as Marvin – perfect casting. And Bill Bailey as the whale – heh. The cameos from some “original” Hitchhiker’s luminaries were fun too.

After the movie, we did some shopping – mostly looking for things for Amy & Rachel’s upcoming birthdays. We headed for Troy, too, in search of things. And when we finished shopping, by golly, it was supper time! (Mom and I know how to time things well.) So off to Applebee’s for supper! I had the WeightWatchers shrimp & steak teryaki skewers and an amaretto sour. Good eats. 🙂

When we got home, I decided to spend it downloaded the latest Doctor Who and playing City of Heroes, so that’s what I’ve been doing. Yay me! (I’ve created two new heroes in the last two days. Basically recreating heroes that I have on other servers.) I just had some freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and am talking with elsaf and judiang online. Life is good. 🙂

My first results from the Photo Challenge (still open – get your requests in!) can be found in this entry. I admitted then that mossymosquito had temporarily stumped me with his request. But no matter, I have now prevailed. I present, for your edification, a grasshopper!

A grasshopper! What do you mean it looks funny?

It is, after all, a fly for fly fishing! I bought it at an Orvis store this weekend while with dad. He figured he probably had one already, but knowing all of the places he stores his flies, I figured it was better to buy one for myself. And it’s cool!

The next challenge was a true challenge. akadriver suggested the following: “I want you to take a picture of your favorite knicknack or toy in an outdoor location. But not just /any/ outdoor location. It has to be one where someone would have to look twice to notice said object. The exact location is up to you. Be creative. :)”

There is a treasure hidden here – and I don’t mean Leo. He’s hardly hiding. That’s a bit far away to look. Perhaps a closeup will be better…

A bit closer now – can you see it?

Surely you can see my treasure now!

It’s Teeny Tiny Teddy, hiding in the tree!

warinbabylon wanted a photo of the front of my house. Whew! A challenge that isn’t so hard! 🙂

The front of my house.

And while I was going through my e-mail notices on these challenges, I realized I forgot to do timjr‘s request! Whoops! I’ll rectify that with my next post on photo challenges. So you can still send me challenges – these have been fun!

It’s April. After Earth Day. And it’s SNOWING!!! Good grief! Last weekend was the Ideal Spring Weather. This weekend, it’s cold, rainy, and frickin’ snowing! *shakes head* Ohio weather – I tell ya!

In the celebratory state of things, Happy Birthday to addictsgirl! And tomorrow sees the birthday of araymond424! Happy birthday to you too! Hope it’s not snowing where you are! (Actually, it may be snowing on araymond424…)

It’s cold and rainy out, but yesterday was as beautiful a spring day as one could ask for. Much of my foliage was abloom, so I took photos (since I already had my camera out for my photo challenge – still taking requests!) Leo was playing around outside (on his leash) and so I got a couple of shots of him as well. You can see all of the flower photos in my Livejournal Photo Gallery, though I’ll show a few under LJ cuts below, along with the Leo pix. (See, new icon!)

Here is Leo, wandering around my chaise lounge. The purple thing is his leash. He thinks I’m strange to require a leash, but if it gets him outside, he’s all for it.

Leo giving me his usual “I own all this shit” look.

I’ve no idea what kind of tree these are from, but they’re awfully purty red flowers! And they’re in my backyard.

With weeds like these, who needs flowers? I never planted tulips, but I have a small patch of them that show up every spring. Works for me!

The tree in front of my house has very pretty white flowers in the spring. And then decides to drop its leaves after the first snow… Damn tree…

Please look at the other photos in my Flower Gallery (if you want) cuz they’re all pretty too! They’re especially nice to look at on drizzly, cold days like today.

A few days ago, I invited one and all to challenge me to take photos with my rinky dinky camera. I’m still willing to do more (there weren’t a lot of requests – alas!) so get your requests in! I have 2 of the requests completed and am posting them here. The third request, from mossymosquito, of a grasshopper, I’ll need a little more time on. But by golly, I’ll get it! 🙂 So please, send me photo requests. I’ll do my best to fulfill them. If nothing else, it got me to download my Chicago trip pix. (Hopefully I’ll get some of those posted soon enough.)

drake57 asked me to photograph my DVDs. Quite the undertaking…

My movie series and Region 2/PAL DVDs. (The Monkees DVDs are only there because they don’t fit on the TV series DVD case.)

My movie DVDs. The first two DVD cases sit on either side of the television.

My TV series DVDs. The Vicar of Dibley Divine Collection is currently on loan to mom & dad (who have been enjoying the series).

Yes, all of my DVDs are in alphabetical order. (Or in chronological order for series.)

miz_em suggested that I take a photo of where I work. Well, as I work in many rooms in the building, one wouldn’t suffice. I took six, so you can see my doors & classroom at the Photo Challenge Gallery, but I’ve got the rooms here.

Here’s my desk in the tech office.

Here are my servers, all nicely labeled and everything.

This is the chemistry/physics lab. Yeah, yeah, it needs straightened up.

I’m sitting at the table in the 3 season room at mom & dad’s cottage at the Lake. In honor of their 37th anniversary, I came up to join them for supper. Mom and I went to Wagner’s grocery and picked out the eats for shish kebabs (marinated pork, pineapple, red pepper, red onion, ‘shrooms, and tomatoes) and a Pepperidge Farm carrot cake for dessert. I paid for the eats as my gift and then made supper when we got back.

I did a really good job grilling. Mom started the fire & dad tended to it, so the flames were perfect for grilled kebabs. Mom had made rice, so we ate our eats with rice. Yum! And there were enough for left overs, too. Always a plus in mom’s book.

Mom actually did the dishes, and then we had the carrot cake. Pepperidge Farms frozen cakes always make me think of the last day (or rather the day after the last day) of school. When I was a kid, I would always go in with dad the day after the last day of school to help him with the Audio/Visual equipment. (We would remove it all from other rooms and store it in dad’s classroom.) Dad’s contribution to the teacher carry-in was always one of these frozen cakes (which we’d buy at the local grocery before we’d get in, and then let sit until lunch).

So anyhoo, tonight was a nice evening spent with the parental units. They’ve had a great 37 years together and here’s hoping they have 37 more!

gregmce had this neat meme in his journal on photo requests. I liked it enough that I’m gonna try it as well. (For one thing, it might get me to download the photos of my Chicago trip finally.) So, here’s what you do:

I will take a photo of whatever you ask me to – you decide what. It can be specific or open ended. I don’t have to appear in it (PLEASE PLEASE don’t make me appear in it). I shan’t do any naughty photos, however, cuz I’m a good gurl. 😉 And Leo’s just figured out how to talk just to request that I not take any photos of him in costume as anything. But other than those, I’ll do my damnedest to get the photos taken that you request. Go on, challenge me! I know you wanna!

In other news, I am now officially OLD! Because, dammit, the new Doctor Who is YOUNGER THAN ME! The Doctor’s not supposed to be younger than me! That’s only supposed to happen to elsaf or judiang!!!

Oh, and I’ll be out of the house this weekend with the parental units, so I won’t be taking any photos then. Probably. (Unless you want a photo of Marcus Borg of the Jesus Seminar – then I might be able to do that.)

Just a short note to say Happy Birthday dreethal! Happy Birthday spooforbrains! Hope y’all have great days ahead of you!

I go down to the basement to transfer clothes from the washer to the dryer and discover that the top of both are covered in water! Oh shit! So I go outside where dad is trimming his yard (mom is mowing) and quiz his diagnostic skills. He tells me to check that the drain hose isn’t plugged up or off or something and describes what it should be like. I return to the basement and get my step stool so that I can look at the back of the washer better.

I notice that some of the ceiling pipes are wet. Now, either my washing machine became a fountain (and with the lid shut, I seriously doubted that) or the water came from above. You know, like from the outside hose which I’d just been using to clean out Leo’s litter boxes… Dad had arrived and we pointed the movable lamp at the pipes and sure enough, there’s a hole that’s most obvious in that pipe. Bugger, gotta get that replaced. It probably froze this winter (though it’s supposedly designed NOT to do this) and ripped. Still, I’m pleased that it was this rather than the washing machine going kablooey. I dried both appliances off and started the next load – they both seem to be working just fine. Phew!

Looks like I’ll be calling the plumber soon – here’s hoping the fix doesn’t cost all that much moolah.

In other news, this weekend has been GORGEOUS!!!!!!! And we’ve supposedly got another day like that tomorrow. Yesterday, I bought myself a chaise lounge for the back yard and Leo & I sat outside. I read, he snoozed & investigated in alternate measures. Then a neighborhood cat came by and Leo got all hyper about it, so I kicked his butt back inside. (My cat, who often acts like a dog, fittingly has a leash to wear outside. OK, so he’s got a paranoid mommy, but he still gets to enjoy the outside even while being an indoor cat.) Today, while I cleaned his boxes, he dozed & sniffed around & enjoyed himself until mom started mowing. Then he wanted to go back inside.

Dad’s doing a Sunday School class on the Jesus Seminar all this month at a church in Dayton, so today we went doon sooth to attend the class. (Mom and I are his groupies.) The class was well attended and dad did a good job on differentiating from the Jesus of the Creeds and the Historical Jesus. Then we went to the Town & Country shopping center where we shopped at Books & Co. and ate at Damon’s (famous for their ribs – which I ordered & were good), and shopped at Trader Joe’s. I bought too much stuff there (well, only $17 worth, but that’s more than $0) including some sour dough bread, Irish cheese, basmati & jasmine rice, and some Madagascar vanilla beans. The folks spent a bit more and bought a bit more stuff. Trader Joe’s is fun – too bad it’s so far away! We’ll probably go there again next week & the week after. 🙂

Well, I supposed I should get offline. I had 3 things I wanted to get done today. Laundry – it’s halfway done. Clean Leo’s boxes – done. Grade papers – not yet started. I did watch the third episode of Doctor Who and really enjoyed it. Leo got distracted by the outdoors about halfway through, however. He must not be all that big on ghost stories. 😉 Hope you all are having a great weekend, too!

Sunday was our last day with judiang. So sad! We went back to the cafe we first ate at this trip (it’s called Howies) and had breakfast. I got a breakfast bagel (egg, cheese & bacon) and hashbrowns, plus apple juice. Good eats. Took some pictures (which I still need to download from the camera) of the girls, too. Then we loaded up the car with Judi’s shit & with Lance and headed back to Judi’s old place. Just as we were to turn onto Roosevelt, we discovered our turn was blocked. We turned the other way and realized that there was a foot race going on. elsaf turned onto Lakeshore Drive and we saw a sign advertising the Shamrock Shuffle. Um, it’s April folks, not March!

So Elsa drove up Lakeshore Drive and we kept looking for a place to turn to get towards State Street. But there was more race. And more. And we passed downtown and got to the hoity toity part of town. But eventually Elsa could turn left and we headed for State Street. We drove south on State, only to discover that it, too, devolved into this “Shuffle.” And so we had to go further out of our way. And just when we found a road going south that wasn’t involved in the race, it was blocked due to a farmer’s market!

By sheer luck and intuition, we finally found our way to Judi’s old place. Judi & I dropped her stuff (and Lance) off at the apartment and I did a search on the web for the Shamrock Shuffle. Judi found us a way back to the new apartment that didn’t require a half an hour (it’s usually a 3-5 minute drive!) and we returned to stuff OUR stuff into Elsa’s car. Lots of hugs transpired, then Elsa and I headed south towards Chinatown and then towards I-94. Then it was East all the way, baby!

We stopped at Big Boy for lunch (not Elias’ Big Boy or Frische’s Big Boy, just Big Boy) and I discovered that, whereas all Big Macs are made the same, not all Big Boys are made the same. Still, the food was hot & tasty & filled us up. I drove for the next leg of the trip, and several miles down the road I realized I’d left my journal back at the restaurant! Shit! I had a couple of trips in it, plus notes on my upcoming Italy trip, plus Judi’s paint swatch numbers, and some other odds & ends in it. Bugger, bugger, bugger. Still, it wasn’t worth going back for, so I just kept on driving. (Perhaps, had we not had the morning delay already, I might have been tempted to go back. But it’s well that I didn’t, as we were later to discover.)

After an hour’s worth of driving and a bit, Elsa took over again to get us through Detroit. But as we neared our final destination (well, her final destination, my next to final destination) there was a detour! Bugger! And what’s worse, once you got on the detour, they suddenly decided we didn’t need detour signs to keep us going in the right direction. Somehow, Elsa managed to get us back to her place, but it was at least 20 minutes longer (maybe more like 30 minutes) than it should have been.

I gathered all of my stuff up and stuffed it into my car. Said “Hi” to Elsa’s doggies. Hugged Elsa. Then started the 3 1/2 hour drive home. I had figured originally that I’d get home around 8:30pm. With our two major detours that day, however, it was quarter to 10 when I arrived. Leo was thrilled to see me. 🙂 No new Doctor Who for us that night, but I figured I could show it to him the following night. Then it was bedtime and my vacation was officially over. So sad!

Thanks to Judi for hosting us and to Elsa for taking me there and for both of them & Emily for the good friend times. I had a blast! I love you guys! 🙂